Most pointless iPhone apps revealed

A talking cat, flying cow and a pretend pint of beer have been named and shamed as the ‘Most pointless iPhone applications ever invented’.

Also making the top ten was the Cat Piano, a lighter app and Hold On!, which requires users to press a button down for as long as they can.

A crude app called Rate a Fart, where the smart phone gives the owner’s flatulence a score out of ten, was also named.

However, while these apps are considered totally pointless, the average iPhone user admits spending 10 minutes a day on them – or 2.5 days a year.

The world’s most pointless apps emerged in a study of 4,000 iPhone users by the Subway sandwich chain that launched its own Subcard loyalty scheme app this summer.

Yesterday the Marketing Director for the Subway chain in the UK and Ireland, Roy Clouter said: ”In a short space of time, phone apps have become a huge part of many people’s everyday lives.

”It’s great to see that on the whole they are useful and make our lives easier, but amazing to see the amount of time people are spending on completely pointless apps.

”Some of these apps are great fun and if it helps people relax during downtime, then we’re all for it.”

The ‘Talking Tom’ app emerged as the overall winner of the most pointless apps.

The app shows a cartoon cat purring, drinking milk and repeating whatever its owner says. It has been a huge hit with iPhone users this year.

iBeer, which allows users to simulate drinking a glass of beer, complete with sounds effects, was voted second most pointless.

In third place was Fat Booth, which allows people to convert perfectly normal pictures of themselves in to a more overweight image.

Coming in fourth was Cat Piano – which as it sounds, is a cat playing the piano.

Completing the top five was the Zippo Lighter application which allows you to customise your lighter and with a flipping motion open the lid and ignite the flame.

But it’s not all about time wasting – a whopping 82 per cent of iPhone owners said on the whole apps generally made their lives easier.

The poll also revealed that the average iPhone user spends 33 minutes a day on apps, but a further ten minutes on totally pointless applications.

The most popular place to browse apps is in waiting rooms, followed by on the commute to work. But an unproductive one in ten of us chooses to play pointless games on apps at work.

Of the 4,000 iPhone users polled, most people used up to five apps a day with 44 per cent of people saying their most used apps were social networking sites, followed by 15 per cent of adults claiming it was news sites.